Just Past Three
by StoatsandWeasels
Summary: A police officer knocking on your door in the middle of the night is never a good thing...right?


Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I have nothing.

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Kagome awoke with a jolt at the sound of heavy knocking on the front door of her apartment. She felt around on her night stand until she located her glasses, put them on her face and turned toward her digital alarm clock. It was just past three a.m. _Who in the world…?_

Before making her way down the hall she reached into the corner of her closet and retrieved the metal baseball bat she had pilfered from her brother's collection before she moved away from home. While she doubted a burglar would knock on the door before breaking in, she figured she would rather be safe than sorry.

As she approached the door, there was another knock; this one more aggressive, reflecting the impatience of the individual doing the knocking. Upon peeking through the peephole, Kagome found herself staring at a navy blue police uniform, donning a shiny brass nametag that read 'I. TAKAHASHI'. Whether or not she noticed how broad and muscular the chest it was draped across was remains her own little secret.

 _The police?_ She thought to herself as she turned the deadbolt and pulled the door open. Concern etched across every inch of her face. "Is something wrong?" she asked the officer, forgetting about the baseball bat she was holding propped against her shoulder. Her stomach began twisting in knots at the sudden realization that a police officer coming to her door in the middle of the night was _never_ a good thing. The fact the he was _super_ cute certainly wasn't helping calm her nerves any either. She was suddenly hyper aware of her greasy bedhead hair and the old, outdated glasses she'd had for at least a decade on her makeup-free face. To top it all off, she was swimming in an extra large _Hooters_ t-shirt that a friend had bought her as a gag gift, and an old, threadbare, pair of plaid flannel pajama pants.

"Are you Kagome Higurashi?" he asked, not seeming to notice or care about her disheveled appearance.

She nodded. "Yes, has something happened...? Is my mother okay? Is someone hurt?!" her hand flew to her forehead "Oh, god! Is someone _dead?!_ " she screeched. Her voice had started out calm, but gradually rose in volume and pitch as full blown panic began to set in.

"I don't know anything about your mother." he clipped. "And I'm sure there's someone, somewhere out there who's hurt or dead, but I don't know anything about that either. Do you own a two thousand five Toyota Corolla?" he asked, getting right to the point.

Kagome's face softened in relief. "Yes sir."

" _Officer_." he corrected.

"Yes _off-i-cer_." she enunciated through gritted teeth. _What a smartass..._

"So I take it you didn't even happen to notice that _your car_ was missing?"

" _Missing_?"

"Yeah, you know, _gone_? Not where you left it? _Stolen_?" he said to her in a condescending tone.

Kagome gasped. "No. I usually take the bus to work and leave my car in the parking lot through the week. The last time I drove it was...let's see...I guess it was the Sunday before last..."

"Well, would it kill ya to keep better track of your things?" he barked.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. "You don't seem very professional. Are you sure you're really a cop?" she asked, extending the baseball bat and poking the badge on his chest. "Is that even real?"

The policeman grabbed the bat and pushed it down, away from his chest. "Please put down the weapon ma'am, I'd hate to have to arrest you." he said with a cocky grin.

Kagome gave a derisive snort. "I swear, all you cops are alike…"

"And what the hell's _that_ supposed to mean?" he asked, clearly taking offense.

"You know, arrogant little hotshot _smartasses_ who think they own the world." she said, placing her free hand on her hip and continuing to hold the baseball bat in the other as an act of defiance.

She was just sure he was about to give her a tongue lashing, but instead the handsome young cop looked her up and down with a smirk that suddenly had the butterflies returning to her stomach full-force.

"So, where's my car now?" she asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"In the impound lot. Where else?"

"Well, I wouldn't know. I've never had a car stolen before." she snapped.

"Are you sure? Maybe you have and you just didn't notice." he teased.

Kagome crossed her arms and turned her nose up at him in huff. "You're very rude. I have half a mind to call and complain to your superior officer."

"I won't argue with you on that. I _am_ rude, and you _do_ have half a mind; but don't waste your breath complaining to the Sergeant. He already knows what I'm like."

Kagome frowned, but otherwise didn't respond.

"So anyway," the policeman continued. "I was out on patrol tonight and stopped a suspected DUI. When confronted the man confessed to stealing the car four days ago. Imagine my surprise when I ran the tags and saw the car was registered to _you_." Kagome saw him flinch slightly as he had clearly divulged more information than he intended.

She furrowed her brow. "You say that as if you _know_ me."

"I _do_ know you. We went to the same high school. Everybody knew you, Ms. Popular goodie-two-shoes. Although I wouldn't expect you'd remember me. I wasn't up to the caliber of the 'Kagome Higurashi' crowd."

"Ah!" she squeaked. "And just what is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"I think you _know_ what it means, Princess. Although…" he paused to look her over again. "Looks to me like little Ms. Perfect has really let herself go..."

She gasped. " _Excuse me?!_ "

"It's a real shame, too" He shook his head and clicked his tongue. "You used to be so cute..."

The reason for his rude behavior was beginning to make itself apparent. "Well, _somebody_ sounds awfully _bitter,_ Officer Takahashi. If you had a crush on me in school you should have just tried talking to me. Don't tell me a tough guy like you was scared of little ol' me." she said, her intended taunting sounding suspiciously like flirting.

" _Keh!_ " he scoffed. "A _crush_? On _you_? In your _dreams_ little girl."

"Mmmhmm. Whatever you have to tell yourself." she said as her eyes scanned his left hand and noticed he wasn't wearing a wedding band. Not that she was looking for one or anything...

"Listen, I'm still on duty and I ain't got time for your little games. Come pick up your car from the Metro police impound lot tomorrow, and try to keep better track of it from now on." he said before turning to leave.

"Wait!" Kagome called out and he stopped and turned back to her. "Will you be there?" she asked.

"Yeah, I spend my days sitting around impound waiting for you to show up." he said facetiously before whipping back around and continuing to his squad car.

Kagome knew he was just trying to push her buttons, what she _didn't_ know was why she was _enjoying_ it so much. She caught a glimpse of a large black dog in the backseat of his car. "Is that your dog?" she called out to him and he didn't even try to hide it as he dramatically rolled his eyes at her.

"Nope, never seen him before in my life." he said as he pulled open the driver's side door.

"Can you cut the sarcasm for five minutes? I'm just trying to be friendly."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "He's my _partner_ , not my dog."

"Can I pet him?" Kagome asked.

"No you _cannot._ He's an on-duty police officer, not a pet."

"Oh…" she said dejectedly. "Sorry." She looked down at her feet.

"Look…" He paused as if contemplating saying something he might regret later. "I take him to the park on Linden Avenue every Saturday morning around nine, so if you wanted to pet him or play fetch or whatever, you can stop by then." he said before sliding into his car and closing the door.

Kagome returned to her apartment as he drove away, smiling to herself while she contemplated what outfit she would wear to the park on Saturday. "You still got it Higurashi." she said to herself, just before catching a glimpse of her reflection in the hall mirror and grimacing at the sight. "You're gonna have to look extra cute on Saturday to make up for this…"

Before returning to bed, she dug out her old yearbook from her senior year of high school. She scanned the T section of her class and came up with nothing, then she turned back to the junior class section and found just one person with the last name Takahashi. _InuYasha Takahashi_.

"InuYasha." she whispered to herself as her eyes scanned over his picture. With the exception of his hair being _much_ shorter now, he really didn't look all that different. She ran her fingers over the picture. "I can't _believe_ I don't remember _you_."

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 **AN: I wrote this from a prompt, but I don't remember what it was now. I may write a second part to this eventually, after I wrap up some other things.**

 **SW**


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